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Do Not Use

Bible and Mission Links 17

Bible Translation This theme brings us back to a couple of perennial issues. One of the things which never ceases to amaze me is the way in which people hold to the belief that the King James Version is the only acceptable translation of the Bible. The original translators certainly didn’t believe this, as this excellent post […]

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Bible Translation

Why Translate the Bible

I’m grateful to my colleagues Mark and Laura Woodward for this excellent video. You can read more about them and what they do in Tanzania on their excellent blog.

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Bible Translation

You Wouldn’t Change the Language in Shakespeare!

You wouldn’t update the language in Shakespeare, so why would you want to change the language in the Bible! You might be surprised at how often people say things along these lines to me, when I’m talking about Bible translation. In a sense it is understandable. After all, Shakespeare and the King James Bible are […]

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Bible Translation

Making History

History isn’t something that happened ‘then’, it’s something we live in ‘now’. One of the remarkable things about the Bible is that it claims to be a story which includes all of human history. It isn’t simply a book of stories about the past, it is a narrative which starts with the creation of the […]

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Bible Translation Computing/Internet

Translation or Evolution

We often get asked why we don’t use Google translate or some other online tool to do Bible translation. Well, the simple answer is that they are just not good enough! Take this example… Our friend Jane recently posted a nice piece about the Kouya translation and our friend Didier on her blog. Jane, lives […]

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Africa Bible Translation

Exciting Changes in the Church…

My friend John Macaulay shared this brilliant story on Facebook and gave me permission to share it here… The following comes from Sally Dechert and the Malila translators, Lukas Mwahalende, and Juma Mwampamba. I tell you, it made this translation consultant dance inside. A few weeks ago, the Malila translators returned from a village where […]

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Languages in Africa

The Queen’s English?

The Guardian has a fascinating article on the way English is spoken in Ghana. It seems that there is a debate going on in Ghana between those who believe that Ghanaians should speak ‘the Queen’s English’ trying to mimic so-called ‘received pronunciation’, because they think that sounding English is prestigious, and those who value being multilingual […]

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Bible & Mission

Free Ebook….

Well, never let it be said that I never give you anything! I have a number of articles and such like that I would eventually like to pull together as a book of essays on the Bible and Mission. One section of the book will consist of articles from this blog on the subject of […]

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Bible Translation

What is Success?

By the time of his ascension, Jesus had eleven close disciples and an indeterminate number of other followers. In terms of measurable success, Jesus’ earthly ministry did not produce a great deal (in today’s culture he might have been in danger of having his funding pulled!).  Jesus invested the best part of three years in […]

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Africa Bible & Mission Bible Translation

Well Used…

In 1974, my brother Phil gave me a Bible. It was the first Bible I’d ever owned and having just become a Christian, I was thrilled with it. Forty years ago, Bibles were real Bibles, this was a large, dark-blue, hardback, King James Version with cross references and the words of Jesus in red. Looking […]